My feed is filled with bad news, which is my fault for using the fediverse as a news feed, but it made me wonder: Which organisations, groups or individual people in the world are doing the most good for our world? I’m particularly interested in those who manage to do good on a larger impact scale (quantity or quality), but if the unknown person on your street who fosters kittens is a great example, I’d love to hear about them too.
Mr. Rogers told me to look for the helpers in times of trouble. Tell me about your favorite helpers!
Habitat for Humanity. People seem to shy away, thinking it’s a free house program for the utterly destitute. Nope!
They put people in affordable homes, with a legit mortgage, who otherwise might be shut out of the market.
Ex-wife started us on the program. We worked it, and I’m typing this from my forever home, $600/mo. and paid off in a total of 19-years. No property tax, no mortgage interest, cost of the home is what you sign for. And it’s brand new or totally gutted and redone. Most are new, appliances and all.
My credit was shit from medical debt, they don’t even look. BUT, you have to make a payment plan with every creditor, and pay on time. They don’t officially favor families, but I’m sure it helps. OTOH, old girl across the street got hers with her 85-yo momma.
We did 300-hours of classroom work and volunteering in the field. The Habitat Restore was our favorite Saturday afternoon. But we nailed and painted and laid sod as well. No, you don’t build your own home, you build your neighbor’s homes. Sodded and mounted my neighbor’s lawn and mailbox! Neat!
I’ll answer all I can, but programs vary from region to region. If you’re truly interested, email me: blade runner blues @ gmail. (My DMs are all jacked up on Lemmy, and I won’t see replies unless I remember to dig.)
Worst anyone can do is volunteer. I’ve never done such satisfying charity work. Call your local chapter!
And praise be to Jimmy Carter, blessing be unto him.
Holy shit, they’re even in new Zealand, too!
Where’s that? Ain’t on my map.
It’s an eastern state of Australia
I run a group that does free software programming education in Seoul. There’s a similar group in LA. When I came to Korea, I just set up a meetup account, paid the fee, rented some space, and started teaching people stuff and studying together. Great way to make friends. Been running it for 7 years now. I’ve had about a dozen or so people come say the group has helped them change their career to IT for the better. A dozen sounds like a small number, but it’s a huge impact on those people
So be the change you want to see. If you have a skill that can help people improve their lives, whether it’s career or life stuff, share it! Learning a new skill is hard, and having a community to support you in learning, goes a long way
I’ll piggyback this and recommend teachsurfing.org
You can teach your skills all over the world. Get invited by institutes that need your skills. Run workshops etc. Or just learn stuff yourself from people visiting your own or close by cities.
I recently gave a brand new $3000 (usd) mattress and bed frame i wasn’t using to an old war veteran because i didn’t want to sell it. I made the phone call to a VFW and gave it to the guy who ran the bar. He was very grateful, he offered me 100$ but i told just give me $5 so i can grab a coffee on the ride home
Get a point for being bold enough to nominate yourself too.
I mean it, that was a cool thing to do and I’m glad you recognise it.
I just wanted to share
Thanks for helping out a person in need! I hope you’re able to keep doing so, and that should the situation ever arise, someone will be able to do the same for you.
Maybe before, but not these days. They take donations claiming to help abortion rights, but also quietly admit they can’t defend them. https://www.jezebel.com/satanic-temple-abortion-rights-religious-exemption-real-1849073332 https://queersatanic.com/the-satanic-temple-cannot-help-you-get-an-abortion-and-it-does-not-deserve-your-support/
Plus the Temple was sued for harassment of it’s members/advocates. The people were linking publicly accessible info about the Temple’s internal issues and then sued for libel and defamation. https://www.newsweek.com/orgies-harassment-fraud-satanic-temple-rocked-accusations-lawsuit-1644042
Then when Newsweek covered the lawsuit, they themselves were sued for libel, when they literally showed that a lawsuit for telling the truth was being made in courts. https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/new-york/nysdce/1:2022cv01343/575138/27/ https://casetext.com/case/the-satanic-temple-inc-v-newsweek-magazine-llc-12
TL;DR: The Satanic Temple sues you for telling publicly known truths about itself, and then takes money that could go to actual help for abortion rights.
I work (part time/retired) for a nonprofit that coordinates and connects volunteer tutors with kids experiencing homelessness.
Never occurred to me (before I signed on) that kids in shelters or on the streets are still going to school while having to deal with no consistent “home” to do homework, irregular/unreliable sleep schedules, absent or overwhelmed parents, etc. Most Volunteer Tutors become important positive role models and a reliably supportive, adult presence in their lives, and the value is immeasurable.
I mostly help the org with marketing material — including editing videos with heartfelt testimonials and Thank-You messages from students — and I swear, most of the time I can barely hold it together to get the work done!
Thank you for the work. Growing up poor and precariously housed, I used a lot of programs like these until I was a young adult really
Well done giving these kids meaning and hope
The effective altruists try to do the most good with each dollar by focusing on the cause where the most lives per $ can be saved. Believe malaria seems to be a favorite cause there.
Somebody will know more than me on this and I’m sure there’s some controversy too.
Nah, it’s a scam if you look into it. They spend it all on “AI Safety” and “Existential Risk” bullshit.
It’s a shame as the general concept is cool with microloans and crowd-funding, etc. but it’s really been taken over by that crowd.
Yeah tech and finance people started getting just absolutely wrecked on their own farts and run that whole scene
Rich people: I wanna help the world Experts: That's fantastic! Here are some issues where we could really- Rich people: Nah. I want to help the world my own way. Experts: Okay, well I hope it uplifts people out of pov- Rich people: Yep. But specifically people Z. Experts: Huh. But what about A,B,C- Rich people: Nah. Just Z. People Z already work for me. Experts: …well, I guess it's better than nothing. Rich people: I'm a good person Experts: …
I like to watch these rewilding, nature restoration or cleaning channels on YouTube. Like ocean cleanup, mossy earth etc.
Yao Ming (an NBA basketball player) has, nearly single-handedly, saved the lives of tens of millions of sharks by simply asking citizens of China to stop eating shark fin soup. Since he started doing this, the price of shark fins has tanked, and 90+ percent of people surveyed in China support a ban on selling shark fins.
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That is impressive! Sometimes you need a right figure to improve messaging.
I would stop fixating on who is doing the most good, like some kinda top 6 listicle of Humanity’s Most Positively Impactful Helpers, and just reach out to anyone who is helping.
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because help is multidimensional and we don’t know what metrics you personally consider more important (there is no objectivity here), 2) maybe I’m getting hung up on a word and have misunderstood you
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I appreciate your sentiment and hope you find a worthy cause to throw in with! :)
Oh it’s less a fixation and more an interest in scale of impact. There’s a lot of people out there who talk a big game but when you look at the results, they’re clearly underwhelming. The blood donor in this thread is a great example of oversized impact, but that’s difficult to replicate. It does give good food for thought in terms of things to look for that could use more support.
The multidimensionality is why I didn’t provide any opening suggestions; I didn’t want to guide the answers. This was so that I might find some dimensions I had not previously considered, and I was curious about what metrics others use to measure “good” in the first place. Unfortunately Elon Musk as always proved to be a topic that generates more opinions.
Thanks for the support though. Honestly, there are a huge number of good choices already, more than I could ever dedicate enough to. I’m hopeful there are some gems out there that have potential to really offset some the vast quantity of suffering the world has to offer, this was just a small experiment in looking outside my own bubble of experience for them.
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Coalition for Rainforest Nations
They work with national governments, indigenous peoples, and local communities to create and audit rainforest protection programs. They also work to reforest areas and generally spread knowledge about rainforest ecosystems.
James Christopher Harrison, a blood donor from Australia, who has saved over two million babies with his blood because it has properties which can treat rhesus disease.
Definitely a huge impact for one person. It’s amazing what the right genetic quirks and science can do!
Thank you for showing me this
Yep, 2.4 million estimated lives saved across 60 years of weekly donations. He’s the kind of human you write songs about. Retired from donating at doctors behest in 2018. I hope he inspired new donors.
I’m amazed they let him do weekly donations. Isn’t it typically every 6 for typical whole-blood donations? I get he’s got special blood, but I’m surprised it would be that frequent compared to “normal” people
I’m sure the doctors know what they are doing since they have been doing it for 60 years.
FSF
I do vehicle diagnostics, programing, coding and have strong connections with all the towns services. My job is usualy to come to your vehicle and see whats the problem and recomend the garage where to fix your car, how much expect to pay and what part will cost how much, so you would know and wouldnt get scamed. After I won some money in the lottery, I didnt tell anybody and just work as usual, but if i see people strugling, like women alone with children driving a beaten down 400€ car, I would say I dont know 100% whats wrong with theyr car so I wont take money for diagnostics, tell them that, they should come to “That” garage and they will fix this problem because they had this kind of thing happen to them. Than i call the garage, tell them that this person is going to come, to fix the problem that I found, and I pay for the fixes snd tell them to say that it was just a small problem. I havent spent any money from the lottery on myself. I even have a seperate bank account for it and onley use it for charity work. Now iam looking at my diagnostic log and in the past 5 years I have registered 1500 free car fixes, Iam nearing 0 at my bank account, I dont think I will be paying for repairs anymore when it reaches 0, but I will continue to do diagnostics for free and stop services from scaming people.
You are the kind of good folks that deserve to win the lottery a second time.
Large scale wise, Doctors without Borders, World Health Organization, and the organizations that help fight for/track sex trafficked people to liberate them.
And within the US (I’m sure there’s others, I’m a yank so my understanding of how things in Germany/Canada/China/South Africa go is often poor) there’s the Electric Frontier Foundation, Meals on Wheels, Planned Parenthood, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and a lot more that help most citizens and biological beings get the right to, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that isn’t actually given by any government.
Also Child’s Play and Make a Wish Foundation are pretty good for sick children to get some levity in a harsh childhood. I usually chip in some online donations/sale credits to Child’s Play and EFF so that they have entertainment when stuck in a hospital, and more digital rights for when they get out of it.
MacKenzie Scott giving away billions over the years, most recently this: https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/19/business/mackenzie-scott-donates-640-million-open-call/index.html
Most of it has gone to “Social Justice” and groups pushing for racism, etc. sadly.
Ehhhh, I’m going to have to disagree on this. She’s obviously better than her ex-husband, but when you have that much money, the amount of interest/dividends it generates would likely offset her tax-deductible donations.
Also, if she has US$36.2 billion and has donated US$3.8 billion in 9 months, that would be like someone who has $100,000 donating $10500. Except you can’t generate much money from interest on $100,000. The average person donating 10.5% of their assets is praise-worthy, but there are millions of people who do that without CNN articles praising their philanthropy.
I’m looking for the people who are really helping, not dodging taxes and generating publicity for themselves.
I don’t care why someone does good, as long as it is something. Also, donating 10% of your income in one year is a huge donation.
Donating a 10th of your net worth in less than a year is huge. And it only offsets her taxes by as much as she donated. Best case scenario is she sold stocks, made a profit of $3.8 billion or less, and then didn’t pay any income taxes on those stocks. But either she was awarded those stocks and taxes would have been paid taxes when she received them (meaning, even if she didn’t pay the taxes herself, that she would have less total money now) or she bought them cheap and sold high, meaning more of the total amount is profit.
So even if she didn’t get taxed on the $200k she lived on that year, taxes for that $200k still would have been paid on the assets already.
The only exception for this is basically for income-like money that is in the lower tax brackets, which is an advantage that most people have and that impacts lower-income people a lot more in terms of total percentage of taxes paid.
If every billionaire donated 10% of their net worth each year to worthy causes, we’d be in a much better place. Not as good a place as if we didn’t have billionaires in the first place, but that’s not because of the billionaires - it’s because of the system that allows them to exist in the first place.
She’s also pledged to donate a full 50% of her net worth. That’s far more than she could ever benefit from in tax breaks.
You ask for good news to help you feel better and then when I try to offer some you criticize it? You’re certainly not one of the helpers. Mr Rogers would not be proud of you. Go back to doomscrolling then.
It wasn’t actually to help me feel better, I was hoping to offset some of the doom that is very widely covered by providing some much-needed attention for the people who are putting in real effort. I also hoped to learn about new people who I could support, because they don’t receive coverage from their public relations spokespeople putting out media releases that are pasted into articles by journalists.
Criticism of your suggestion is not an attack on you. I’m sorry that you felt it necessary to try to insult me for expressing a difference of opinion, and I hope your day improves.
